Overproduced records

In my personal opinion, the acoustic guitar is the greatest of all musical instruments. I love hunting down and listening to acoustic, or unplugged live versions of some of my favourite tunes. I try to get to Glastonbury Festival every year, I've been to the last nine in a row - every year since 2002, except 2006, when the event took a fallow year. I love wanderering the fields late at night and coming across little venues of various types, showcasing new talent, open mic slots and so on.

I love Songbook on Sky Arts HD because it features a prominent artist in their creative element, with just their guitar, and sometimes a piano or keyboard.

Similarly, Later With Jools Holland has given some fantastic performers their breakthrough with an acoustic set which has led to them receiving a recording contract.

Occasionally though, the radio edit or single version of a song feels overproduced.

Here's an example of what I mean. Even if you can't be arsed listening through, just give them 10 seconds each and you will still be able to appreciate my point.

KT Tunstall on Jools Holland in 2004, giving a rave performance as a last minute replacement for someone who dropped out.



The single version that followed...



Don't get me wrong, it's still pleasant, but by adding layers of instrumentation and production, the final result is further from the moment of creativity.

I compare the effect to adapting a masterpiece novel into a film.

Check out Pulp's Jarvis Cocker performing 'Babies' from Pulp's His N Hers album on Songbook. How special is this? Performing it 15 years after the album came out but it just blows you away when he gets to the chorus. Just the songwriter and his acoustic guitar.



And here's the single version.



There are very few new musicians achieving commercial success in this day and age with bare music, which is a terrible shame. Nick Drake is a great example. He sold a couple of thousand records in his lifetime, topped himself, a car company featured one of his songs in a TV add 15 years later, and his two albums have now sold hundreds of thousands of copies all around the world, and practically every track is Nick Drake and his guitar.



It makes me wonder: what we are really listening to when we buy an album or turn the radio on?

Can you think of any other songs which sound over produced?

I think there is an element of personal taste in this. I enjoyed both versions of the KT Tunstall song.

I agree that some music is over-produced and even worse the sound is often compressed or mucked about with for radio play. It is the main reason I prefer not to listen to most downloaded music.

What I want my music system to do is to get as close as possible to what the artist intended. This is easier with an acoustic act provided it is properly recorded, but even the best live recordings come nowhere near experiencing the music live.

I still buy quite a few CDs. Some are great and some disappoint but I keep buying them because I love listening to music.

Five Leaves Left was an overrated album but I always liked Time Has Told Me.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cche-h83qNQ

Arctic Monkey's first album springs to mind. They released each song as freebies downloadable from their website.

The downloadable versions were all a lot rawer than the official versions on the actual album.

This one is the best example...

Downloadable version (stunning):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P5DoY67B9wY

CD version (a bit naff!):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUGzWETn1HQ

I've never been a fan of Arctic Monkeys, doffcocker. I associate them with the spoilt brat students of the noughties. I know some people are crazy about them though. I feel fortunate, I was a student in the late 90s, I think I'd have been gutted to go clubbing and have to listen to 'I bet you look good on the dance floor' at 5 to 2 on a Sunday morning.

Anyway, I digress. I do agree that the rawness of the downloadable version is terrific, particularly the intro. The album version sounds like a bad Supergrass album track.

It just seems to me that as a general rule of thumb, the closer the sound is to that which was originally conceived, the more 'authentic' the recording, the better.

Oasis are a good example, they did the BBC Electric Prom a few years ago. A number of the songs were backed up by a Boys Choir in the choruses and it was really good because it was different, but I don't think I am just being nostalgic when I say it wasn't as good as when they did MTV Unplugged.

you're probably going to mock but i've never understood what production really means on a record. please explain what over-producing is.

not-so-plain-jayne wrote:you're probably going to mock but i've never understood what production really means on a record. please explain what over-producing is.

I think my knowledge of bands is brilliant, but I only sort of understand producing.

The way I think of it is what you hear on an actual record isn't how it actually sounds, because it is edited by computers; sometimes for the better, sometimes not! It's usually quite obvious how much it has been edited because of how artificial it sounds.

Jayne...

Well, it's what they do in the studio to modify the vocals or the instruments.

Sometimes, like in the 80s when a lot of people who couldn't sing released records, it is done to disguise the fact that someone can't sing, like Paul Gascoigne's version of Fog on the Tyne or one of the many soap stars who released singles. The idea was that the songs would sell on the strength of the popularity of the celebrity and all one had to do was make the song listenable to.

What I'm talking about is when different layers of instrumentation are artificially added to a track post production. So you have an artist in the studio playing their song and maybe a guitar, and then the studio gets hold of the recording and thinks it will sell better if they add in an extra synthesiser track, or bass guitar, or change the pitch of their vocals, or whatever, to produce a more commercial sound that will gain radio play and mass appeal.

When this happens, it's my opinion that you might sell more records but I prefer more organic, naturally sounding performances, which you only tend to hear if you see an artist live, or when listening to a recording of a live performance.